If you have not already guessed what ‘it’ is, then adding that it’s in much of the maize, soy, oats, wheat and barley that form the staple foods we eat, will give it away.

Yes, glyphosate is ‘it’.

Glyphosate has been around for 45 years amidst claims by Monsanto that it is safe in the environment and not toxic to humans. They argued that because animals don’t have the enzyme that glyphosate acts on, humans are not be directly affected by it.

That assumption is challenged by new scientific evidence that glyphosate operates via other genomic pathways. The presence of glyphosate during cell growth, produces non-target effects. These include endocrine disruptions that affect DNA and reproduction.

When I combine the pervasiveness of glyphosate in our food supply, with these new modes of action, the conclusion is clear to me: we adults are not directly affected by it, but our children may be.

Monsanto would dispute this conclusion, saying that studies “have demonstrated that glyphosate, when applied according to instructions, is not harmful to soil insects, earthworms or microscopic soil organisms.”

The argument is inconsistent with Monsanto patenting glyphosate as an antibiotic in 2004. When its in our food and water, its in our gut. And a healthy gut micro-biome is crucial to our well-being.

Despite this correlation, the US government, through their food safety regulator, increased the allowable level of glyphosate in food crops from 200 to 6,000 parts per million in 2013.

They did this despite there being no science on the effects of low level exposure on humans. Food safety testing has not, until this year in the US, been conducted to determine safe exposure levels.

Adding to this, recent research published by the American Society for MicroBiology, found that glyphosate exposure increased antibiotic resistance by Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Salmonella enterica bacterium.

These findings, plus other glyphosate research, are now sufficient evidence that glyphosate is potentially harmful.

Humans have not been genetically engineered to be RoundUp Ready. Although that may become the only solution to the health impacts before us.